The Nothing I've Become
by Shining Charizard
Summary: A song fic that I wrote with a semiHalloween theme. Rated PG13 only bc of the last scene, and it's just to be safe. Yugi faces a darkness within... how will he protect his friends?


Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing but the text. The song and concept of Yu-gi-oh! belong to other people.  
  
SC: Aloha. While reading my other songfic (The World We Live In), I was inspired to create another one. It has sort of a Halloween theme, but don't expect to see any candy.  
  
Song: "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence  
  
/ Blah / = Yugi's thoughts  
  
~ " Blah" ~ = song  
  
~*~*~  
  
Semi-darkness.  
  
Not quite day, yet not quite night. An eternal state of twilight.  
  
This is how I am cursed to live.  
  
A majority of me thrives in the light, stands up for friends, and follows the path of righteousness. Even Yami, who came to me by means of the Millenium Puzzle, is wreathed by the light.  
  
But there's a part of me that dwells in the darkness. A small part, yes, but with enough power to affect my daily life.  
  
What's even worse is how it affects my nightlife.  
  
Tonight was one such night, or rather, evening. The orange glow of the sun was slowly fading over the horizon. Even now, I felt my darker self stirring.  
  
Tea and the others were there with me; Joey and Tristan monkeying around as always. I didn't feel much like joining in, because tonight I would have more important things to attend to.  
  
I had not told any of them about my dark secret. They did not need to know, and so I did not inform them. I am sure that Tea would have become most distraught had she known. Better to live in false content than to have everyone pity you day in and day out.  
  
Yet I believe she suspected something was wrong, because she was studying me with a concerned look.  
  
~ "How can you see into my eyes like open doors  
  
Leading you down into my core." ~  
  
"Yugi?" she asked. "What's wrong?"  
  
It made my heart ache to lie to her like this, but I just couldn't tell her the truth. "It's nothing," I answered. "I'm just not feeling well." At least that much had been true. For with the nearing of night came the painful spasms that signaled the shadow's awakening.  
  
"Why?" I asked her, sending the conversation to a different topic.  
  
"It's just that you look a bit downtrodden. You haven't said five words since we got here."  
  
"I told you, it's nothing really. I just feel a bit tired, that's all."  
  
~ "Where I've become so numb without a soul  
  
My spirit sleeping somewhere cold." ~  
  
"All right, then," Tea said finally, although she didn't look like everything was all right. "Let's go see what Joey and Tristan are up to." Her cheerful attitude returned, and with a grin she spun 'round and made for the doors of the arcade where Joey and Tristan were.  
  
"Yes, let's," I agreed. I suppose it would be okay for me to play around for a little while. . .  
  
~ "Until you find it there,  
  
And lead it back home." ~  
  
I lost track of time while I was in the arcade. Had I known that night had already fallen, I would have left by now. But the presence of my best friends and the flashing lights and sounds of the video games distracted me for an hour.  
  
Suddenly, a sharp throb sent itself down my spine. I realized now that the time had come. . . I needed to get outside.  
  
~ " {Wake me up!} Wake me up inside!  
  
{Can't wake up!} Wake me up inside!  
  
{Save me!} Call my name and save me from the dark." ~  
  
I rushed through the arcade, squeezing past crowds of kids in order to reach the door. I had almost made it out when Tea confronted me.  
  
"Yugi! Where are you off to in such a hurry?" She had a quizzical look on her face.  
  
"Uh. . . " I trailed off in search of an answer. ". . . I just remembered that Grandpa wanted me home already. I-I really need to get going."  
  
/ I must get out! Away from all these people. . . Away from my friends. . . /  
  
~ "{Wake me up!} Bid my blood to run,  
  
{Can't wake up!} before I come undone.  
  
{Save me!} Save me from the nothing I've become." ~  
  
"Oh. . . right then." Tea blinked once, then stepping gently to the side she added, "Go ahead then. Catch ya' later Yugi!"  
  
"Later, then," I replied, and stormed out the door so fast I know it must have seemed rude.  
  
Manners could wait. This was important.  
  
"Yugi," I heard Tea whisper faintly just before the doors had closed. That fact that I heard her was a sign that I was already becoming it.  
  
~ "Now that I know what I'm without  
  
You can't just leave me." ~  
  
Inside of me, the darkness grew. "Let me out!" it seemed to cry, echoing throughout my body, resonating in my bones.  
  
~ "Breathe into me and make me real.  
  
Bring me to Life." ~  
  
I stole a glance at the sky above. It was cloudy out; perfect. I could use this time to get as far away as possible. I couldn't let my friends face the creature I would become.  
  
~ "{Wake me up!} Wake me up inside!  
  
{Can't wake up!} Wake me up inside!  
  
{Save me!} Call my name and save me from the dark." ~  
  
I took off in the direction of the park. That would be the best place to go, for hardly anyone was there at night.  
  
~ "{Wake me up!} Bid my blood to run,  
  
{Can't wake up!} before I come undone.  
  
{Save me!} Save me from the nothing I've become." ~  
  
As I ran, my thought drifted to Tea. Someday she would have to know, but for a now the secret was best kept. She was a dire treasure to me, and I could not risk losing her.  
  
~ "Frozen inside without your touch, without your love, darling.  
  
Only you are the life among the dead." ~  
  
Listening intently, I could have sworn that I heard footsteps behind me, but I shrugged it off as the pounding of my blood in my ears.  
  
I reached the park and stopped in the middle of a small clearing. I scanned the sky and saw that only one cloud separated me from my worst nightmare.  
  
The moon.  
  
It had come to possess power over me, so that my life became situated around its phases. At the New Moon I became slow, fatigued, and weak. And at the Full Moon. . .  
  
The cloud parted.  
  
The clearing was buried under silvery beams of moonlight. Instantly the cosmic powers began working on me.  
  
I closed my eyes. Had I not known what was happening to me right now, I wouldn't have noticed a thing. It had happened to me so many times now that I couldn't feel its effects.  
  
*  
  
". . . What the. . . ?" came the faint whisper of a young girl behind a bush. She had watched a boy run into the clearing and now saw him slowly transforming into some sort of creature. Words could not describe the combination of fear and sadness she felt.  
  
~ "All this time I can't believe I couldn't see.  
  
Kept in the dark, but you were there in front of me." ~  
  
*  
  
Slowly, he opened my blood-red eyes.  
  
The wolf had complete control over me. I could see everything that he did, but I could not stop its actions. This is the reason that I had sought to stay away from my friends. I knew they would try to help me, but the wolf would most assuredly dispose of them quickly.  
  
I could not allow that.  
  
But my life was his now.  
  
~ "I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems,  
  
Got to open my eyes to everything.  
  
Without a voice, without a soul. . ." ~  
  
*  
  
The girl suddenly felt very afraid.  
  
She knew that this. . . wolf. . . would surely attack her if it knew she was there. She couldn't make a sound or else face its glimmering fangs. . .  
  
The beast raised its nose and sniffed. It was searching for prey. For food.  
  
For her.  
  
His red eyes turned and locked with hers.  
  
*  
  
I saw the girl half-hidden in the shadow of an oak. She was trembling with fear of her life. But the wolf I had become cared not about a petty girl's feelings.  
  
He just wanted to eat.  
  
He lunged.  
  
*  
  
The girl shrieked, but it was far, far too late. The great wolf had leapt up and landed with its paws on her shoulders, pinning her down. She could not move. She could only gaze into its cold red eyes as the beast lowered its fanged jaw to meet her neck.  
  
~ "Don't let me die here.  
  
There must be something more." ~  
  
*  
  
As my teeth sank into the girl's neck, I though as though I might cry.  
  
The wolf had knocked her into the light when it had tackled her, and now I could clearly see her face.  
  
It was Tea.  
  
She had followed me here from the arcade. She had to have. If only I had warned her.  
  
If only I had never become this monstrosity.  
  
If only I hadn't lied to her.  
  
If only I had told her. . .  
  
The wolf threw back my head in a bloodthirsty howl.  
  
. . . that I loved her.  
  
Tea spoke, her final words, in an agonized whisper:  
  
". . . Bring me to Life. . . "  
  
~*~*~ 


End file.
